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The Origins and Characteristics of Social Security Systems in Korea and Taiwan after Democratic Transition (2018.03)
- Authors : Hyeok Yong Kwon, Eunju Chi
- Journal : Korean Political Science Review
- Publisher : The Korean Political Science Association
- Volume : 52(1)
- Publication Date : March, 2018
- Abstract : This paper examines the characteristics of social security systems and identifies institutional origins in South Korea and Taiwan during the post-democratization period. In both Korea and Taiwan the productivist welfare system was formed during the authoritarian developmental state era. As the growth policy of their developmental states reached its limits and the market opening progressed, the inequality of the two countries began to increase rapidly. The democratic transition in 1987 expanded the demand for redistribution to protect the socially unstable and economically insecure groups and social strata. Korea and Taiwan, where the market opening and democratization have co-evolved, tried to protect the social weak by expanding the national health insurance, improving public pension system and establishing various social security systems. However, except for national health insurance and the national pension, most of the social security systems were underdeveloped, mainly due to the preferences and norms for growth-oriented economic policies formed during the developmental state period. This study explains the social security systems of both countries after democratic transition by evoking the notion of path-dependency, which focuses on the norms of growth and distribution formed during the developmental state era.
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Transnationality of the ‘Korean Wave’ and ‘Reverse Media Imperialism’ Thesis (2018.03)
- Author : Doo-Jin Kim
- Journal : The Journal of Asiatic Studies
- Publisher : Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University
- Volume : 61(1)
- Publication Date : March, 2018
- Abstract : The Korean Wave often argues for faster and stronger invasion into East Asian countries, further European countries in cultural sense. K-pop has often come to the logic that Korea has finally entered the Center. Until most recently, combined with the controversy on a more aggressive cultural imperialism, it is assumed that the Korean wave has an aspect of ‘reverse media imperialism,’ reflecting a new dichotomy of us/center and them/periphery. Some argue that the Korean Wave may be seen as a new cultural dominant at the international dimension, thus paving the way for cultural hegemony even in Europe e.g. the UK. The orthodoxy in popular music studies has supported cross-fertilization through the process of hybridization or transculturation between the global and the local. We posit that the Korean Wave is considered another type of glocalization/hybridity deriving from the dominant mode of cultural flow in advanced countries. In the light of ‘British Invasion’, the Beatles was crucial in establishing the importance of rock as a social phenomenon as unprecedented or overwhelming rather than a transient cultural force in the UK. The Beatles still tends to enjoy a canonical status as ‘zeitgeist’ consisting of British social culture as a whole, proving their durability as leaders that has served as a vehicle of British cultural imperialism. The Beatles legacy continues to endure, because the music itself has a quality of timelessness that allows it to be passed from generation to generation. while the Korean wave may be seen as a new dominating core of cultural flow even in the UK, the potentials of British imperialness on the post-Beatles should be carefully considered.
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Criteria for the Classification and Distribution of Political Power in John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
- Authors : Hyang Mi Oh
- Journal : Journal of Korean Politics
- Publisher :The Institute of Korean Political Studies Center for Social Sciences
- Volume : 26(1)
- Publication Date : February, 2018
- Abstract : This article reviews John Locke’s theory of the separation of power laid out in The Second Treatise of Government. In this regard, the conclusion is reached herein that Locke fails to apply a consistent principle when it comes to the classification of powers and the distribution of such powers to political groups. Locke maintains that individual liberty and rights are secured by the separate exercise of Legislative and Executive Power, which is derived from the Legislative. In addition to the powers associated with the making and execution of laws, a Community functioning in the social state requires other powers capable of managing matters out of the rule of law so as to protect individual liberty and rights. One is the Federative Power to defend the advantage of the Commonwealth and the other is the Prerogative to secure the public good in the extraordinary state. The unavoidability of the Federative Power and the Prerogative are legitimized by the logic of the contract theory, i. e. by the defense of the advantage of the Commonwealth and the public good. To this end, Locke`s argument that these two Powers must be distributed to the Executive is at once a pragmatic and teleological one. This is because Locke asserts that the Executive and Federative Power and Prerogative are necessary to use the force of the Commonwealth. However, Locke fails to understand that, depending on whether the ordinary or extraordinary exercise of those powers is involved, the means of force can be classified as either the police power exercised by the Executive or the military power wielded by the Federative and Prerogative. To conclude, there is a lack of logical basis as far as the premise that Executive Power must be combined with Federative and Prerogative power is concerned. Having divided political power into 4 separate powers within the context of the contract theory, Locke cannot as such theoretically legitimize the distribution of powers within this contract theory. As a result, he pragmatically distributes Federative Power and the Prerogative to the historically pre-existing monarchial powers found in 17th Century England. If one also consistently applies the Lockean contract theory to the distribution of political powers, then the holder of the Executive can be separated from the holder of the Federative and the Prerogative in order to secure individual liberty and rights on the one hand and the public good and the advantage of the Commonwealth on the other.
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Government Partisanship and Technological Disasters (2017.12)
- Authors : Gyu Jeong Yee, Sung-woo Lee, and Jae Hyeok Shin
- Journal : Social Science Studies
- Publisher : Social Science Research Institute, Chunbuk National University
- Volume : 41(3)
- Publication Date : December, 2017
- Abstract : In this article we aim to investigate the effect of political factors on technological disasters such as the sinking of the Sewol ferry. We argue that as the influence of leftist parties in the government increases, regulatory intensity increases, which, in turn, decreases technological disasters. Leftist parties tend to intensify regulations prioritizing human safety rather than economic growth, whereas rightist parties tend to soften regulations placing greater emphasis on growth. Intensified regulations should decrease technological disasters, whereas softened regulations should increase technological disasters. We support these arguments using time-series data of 59 countries around the world. We find that as the governing leftist parties’ share of parliamentary seats increases, the regulatory intensity increases, and that as the regulatory intensity increases, the death toll caused by a technological disaster decreases.
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The Proper Range of Freedom of Speech in a Multicultural Society (2017.12)
- Author : Nam-Kook Kim
- Journal : Journal of International and Area Studies
- Publisher : Institute of International Affairs, Seoul National University
- Volume : 26(4)
- Publication Date : December, 2017
- Abstract : This article discusses the relationship between freedom of speech, hate speech, and freedom of religion through the Danish cartoon affair and Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. The author tries to find the proper range of freedom of speech beyond a simple dichotomy between freedom of speech and blasphemy in a multicultural society. The aforementioned events and their aftermaths show that freedom of speech can be limited by the regulation of hate speech, and that the guideline of such regulations would be a given identity like race, ethnicity, gender and region, which one could not choose by oneself. Religion in modern western tradition, on the other hand, belongs to a non essential factor of identity that one can choose and convert anytime. While it can be the target of criticism for this reason, in this case one should make a distinction between criticism against religion itself and criticism against people who follow that religion. While the former can be protected under the freedom of speech, the latter can not be protected and becomes an object of hate speech regulation. Although legal regulation can bring about some effects through its symbolic message, the law itself functions to prohibit certain values or action as well as to produce prohibited value or action at the same time. Therefore we should focus more on deliberation and subversion reasoning than on regulation through law. The conditions to participate in deliberation such as mutual respect, rational dialogue, and political rights between social minority and majority, natives and newcomers will both enhance the political legitimacy of decision making procedure in various democratic political communities. In addition, through such deliberation, we can reach a consensus of how freedom of speech as an abstract principle would be interpreted and implemented given the local context in a more concrete way.
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The Abe Administration’s Diplomacy and Security Policy: National Security Council, the Right of Collective Self-defense, and the Revision of the Constitution (2017.12)
- Author : Jingoo Cho
- Journal : Dongbuga Yeoksa Nonchong
- Publisher : Northeast Asian History Foundation
- Volume : 58
- Publication Date : December, 2017
- Abstract : Since the second Abe administration was formed in December 2012, the foreign security policy of Japan has demonstrated a grand transformation in terms of its contents and structure.
Structurally, Japan established its National Security Council on December 4, 2013, by taking the National Security Council of the United States as the model, and newly launched in January 2014 the National Security Secretariat, which is the working-level supporting organization for the NSC. In terms of content, Japan adopted the National Security Strategy, the comprehensive guideline for the diplomatic affairs and defense policy, on December 17, 2013, for the first time in its history.
Moreover, on July 1, 2014, the Japanese government made the Cabinet-level decision to approve the right of collective self-defense by revising the conventional interpretation of its constitution which prohibits any extraterritorial exercise of the right of defense of the Self-Defense Forces. At the 2+2 Meeting between Japan and the United States on April 27, 2015, both states agreed to revise the Guidelines for the U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation, which was established in November 1978 and revised in September 1997.
These changes will be the core transition point of the post-war Japanese security policy. It is important for Korea to pay attention that they have the possibility to bring about a structural transformation of international relations in East Asia including the Korean Peninsula.
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North Korean Refugee’s Attitude to Welfare in South Korea (2017.12)
- Author : Sung-woo Lee
- Journal : Journal of Peace and Unification Studies
- Publisher : Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National Univeristy
- Volume : 9(2)
- Publication Date : December, 2017
- Abstract : This paper is a introductory study what any factors have a crucial effect on welfare attitude of North Korean refugees in South Korea. This paper uses two indicators – government responsibility on income gap, preferences on nine welfare policies – as dependent variables. Independent variables use several variables of objective economic status and subjective economic judgement. Objective variables are income, employment status, some experience of some welfare services. Subjective things are perception on social income gap, attitude on market economy, prospects on national economy, prospects on household economy, social status in North Korea, social status in South Korea. This paper finds that employment status, experiences of welfare services among objective variables have some significant effects on welfare attitude of North Korean refugees and that significant variables among subjective things are perception on social income gap, social status in South Korea. Depending on this results, this paper argues that changes of welfare attitude of North Korean refugees in South Korea depends on perceptions of economic stability and understanding on South Korean society.
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Debates over the Relationship between Fundamental Rights and State Power Regulations in the Weimar Constitution (2017.12)
- Author : Hyang Mi Oh
- Journal : Journal of Parliamentary Research
- Publisher : Korea Parliamentary Research Institute
- Volume : 12(2)
- Publication Date : December, 2017
- Abstract : This article reviews debates over the internal coherence of constitutional law that accepts fundamental rights alongside the regulation of a political power system. Its object is a modern written constitution, the German Weimar Constitution, which encompasses comprehensive fundamental rights, including active rights with moral and philosophical contents, as well as traditional passive rights. The modern written constitution regulates abstract and philosophical human rights along with political power, which cannot be wholly ruled. As a result, constitutional theoretical problems appear, namely problems of infringement or limitation of fundamental rights through legislation, constitutional amendments, and emergency powers. The collision between the regulation of powers and fundamental rights in the development of modern written constitutions is manifested in different way in the modern state, but the debates over the collision in the Weimar Republic remind us that the extension of fundamental rights is inalienable from the alteration of a power system, an issue which is key to constitutional amendments in Korea today. The regulation of political rights influences power formation, and the extension of active rights allows a state to intervene widely in individual life, possibly bringing about an expansion of judicial power not authorized under political rights.
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Background and Implications of the Development of the Hyunmoo Missile (2017.11)
- Author : Jiil Kim
- Journal : Strategic Studies
- Publisher : Korea Research Institute for Strategy
- Volume : 73
- Publication Date : November, 2017
- Abstract : In its early days, Chun Du-Hwan’s administration downsized the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), which played a pivotal role in the independent local development of weapons, particularly missiles. Just a few years after that, the government rushed to expand the ADD again and develop the Hyunmoo Missile. The present research analyses the reasons for this turn. Specifically, the article has the following two objectives. First, to apply to the development of the Hyunmoo Missile the practical principles that formed between Korea and the U.S. with the signing of the Korea-U.S. Missile Memorandum of Understanding during Park Chung-hee’s administration and analyse the implications. Second, to clarify the facts leading to the development of the Hyunmoo Missile during Chun Du-Hwan’s administration and correct existing inaccuracies in historical records. To perform these tasks, the study employs thorough literature analysis in search for answers, making maximum use of declassified documents and filling the missing parts with primary materials.
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